Here I am on the very first day looking like a dork with a freshly built cart.

Uel Zing Coffee started from a yellow bike cart on Monday the 13th of May, 2013. Uel Zing creator samUel Sveen—me—built the cart myself and biked it to the corner along Kirkwood Avenue, a bustling street leading into Indiana University. One thing, one size, cold brew iced coffee. After the first summer, bottled cold brew seemed the more scalable and sustainable option, and by the next spring, 12 oz ready-to-drink and 32 oz concentrate bottles hit the shelves of the local co-op. All the coffee has always been produced at a commercial kitchen, but we've made a headquarters and small cafe at three different locations, now settled in at 727 W Kirkwood Ave. A small team of friends has kept things running, and the bottles continue to be the main focus of the company.

After graduating from Cornell University with a B.A. in English, I went straight to the coffee shop and cut my teeth at Gimme! Coffee, a highly acclaimed roastery in New York. I worked there and learned a purist approach to coffee for about two years in Ithaca and Brooklyn. In New York, I met Lindsay, who was finishing up her Ph.D. at Indiana University, and we eventually found ourselves together in Bloomington, Indiana. And I started this thing, Uel Zing.